Laura got her 500th bird on her life list yesterday on the pelagic trip out
of O.C. Actually a NORTHERN FULMAR made #501. Before that a DOVEKIE was #499
and BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE was the biggie. Thanks to all on the boat who
helped her in my absence. I don't do winter pelagics, so I skipped it. She
got thru the trip with only one minor sickness episode and she wore a patch
all week.

500 was sort of a goal for us. We had run out of places in the U.S. where we
could go rack up 30 or 40 life species for her real easy. The last several
birds came slow and hard. Yes, we have missed a lot of birds (~9500
world-wide but who's counting) but she no longer has anything real high on
her wish list - Dovekie was a big one for her. A Great Gray Owl would be
next up be she doesn't consider it worth a winter trip to Minnesota freezing
our butts off trying to find one out in the open somewhere.

What I am coming to is that we are going to cut down on bird chasing now and
concentrate on other things. Yes, we will still take some bins with us
whenever we go somewhere birdy, but we will no longer be active birders
pursuing another number for a list. It was a nice run but we are calling it
quits while we are ahead. I want to thank everyone on this list for their
help over the years and their kindness and their patience.

I will be emailing Norm to take us off MDOSPREY. I was mainly using it as a
rare bird alert lately and there are other sources should we decide to step
out of character to chase something again. Unlikely. This will open a place
for somebody else as I know Norm has a limit for this list.

Best to all of you. Laura and I enjoyed your company.

Jerry Tarbell
Doing less birding in Carroll County

############################

To unsubscribe from the MDOSPREY list:
write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
or click the following link:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=MDOSPREY&A=1